Eleven years ago, Jean Franco’s black handbag was stolen as she worked at the now defunct Steinbach’s Department store. She never imagined that this weekend, she’s get her purse back.
The theft left the mother of two frantic with the thought that someone now had her car and house keys and valuable identification.
“I remember that night very well, and it was extremely traumatic. I felt violated,” Mrs. Franco said. “I was sick that someone had all my information, all my keys and knew where we lived.“
But she had little to worry about. Somehow the handbag ended up inside a sealed locker in a Shelton family’s garage. There it stayed, undisturbed, until it was discovered by 33-year-old garage owner Jennifer Thompson. It took her just five hours to track down the bag’s rightful owner.
“I can’t believe it, but that’s it, that’s my old handbag, oh my god,” Mrs Franco shouted out to Ms Thompson as the two women met at the local mall. “I can’t believe how heavy it is. Wow, what did I leave in there?“
As it turns out she left a large black cell phone, four times as big as the one she uses today, a wallet filled with photos and credit cards, $76 in cash, and a $128.41 payroll check from Steinbach’s dated 1997. The only thing missing was her driver’s license.
“Maybe some teenage girl wanted to use it, who knows?” she said. “But it’s very strange nobody took the money and credit cards, and I still wonder how it got inside that locker.”
Mrs. Franco gave Mrs. Thompson a $25 reward from the cash in the wallet, and planned to use the rest to fill her car with gas. “It would have gone a lot further back then,” she joked. “I probably could have filled it up two or three times with that money in 1997 or 98.”
